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Plane ticket: $1080 USD $1800 CND each
Peak fees: Meru $1500 full price
Swachand $ 750 half price for every other peak
Liaison Officer $500 requires cook, must pay food / accom.
Environmental fee $400
Garbage fee at gate $2.20 Rs- 100
Travel costs: Bus rental 8 people and gear
Delhi to Gangotri $500 Rs- 24000
1 Jeep 2 people and gear
Delhi to Rishikesh $115 Rs- 5500
Rishikesh to Gangotri $21 Rs- 1000
Porters: 2 days. Gangotri to Bhojbasa 6 hrs. Bhojbasa to Tapovan 4 hrs.
Outfitter cost $30 per day Rs- 1440
Gangotri hired $6.25 Rs- 300
Outfitter: Cook $30 per day Rs- 1440
Helps in buying Base Camp food in Delhi
Cook tent rental $ Rs-
Needed for Cook’s services and sleeping space
Base Camp tent $150 for one month Rs- 7500
Large enough for 10 people.
Accommodation:
When you arrive at Delhi international airport, hire a car taxi to take you to the Indian Mountaineering Foundation, IMF. You can stay in a dorm room with lots of space for packing; cost is Rs- 350 per night per person. They have an extremely large mountaineering library and a well-made climbing wall for free use. They also have free properly filtered drinking water. IMF is not near any conveniences and you must take a taxi to get anywhere. IMF offers food services for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Or you can stay at Sunny Guest house, downtown Delhi for Rs- 170 per night. Many westerners stay here and you are near banks, western food, coffee shops and good shopping. Rooms are very small but there is a television with world news. Internet services are nearby and cost only Rs- 40 per hour.
India mountaineering requirements:
Peak fees exist for all peaks and can range from $750 USD to over $2000 for peaks higher than 6000 meters. Also a $400 environmental fee and Liaison Officer fee of $500. You must also have a mountaineering visa, which is different than a tourist visa. It is an X on your visa instead of a T. You can get this in Canada for about $65 CND but you need to apply to IMF three months before departure and you must pay peak fees with application. Visit IMF’s web site for information on peak fees, application and address. You also need the services of a Liason Officer, even for trekking and he needs a cook, with cook tent.
MERU EXPEDITION, GARHWAL HIMALAYA, INDIA.
SEPT 4 - OCT 2 2002.
Our party of four Canadians and one Irishman took a week from the airport
in Delhi to arrived in Tapovan base camp at 4200 meters. My partner Damien
Kelly and myself hoped to put up a new alpine line on the Meru Sharks Fin.
The monsoon season lasted an extra month than the norm and we were greeted
by 10 feet of snow instead of sun and grass. All the mountains were submerged
in a heavy snow pack. The heavens consumed us in deep powder for another 9
days and three times our large communal tent collapsed overnight. Damien became
really sick from the water and food. He didn't stop puking blood for 24 hours.
Finally opting for an injection of Gravol he was able to drink liquid again.
I got altitude sickness, the only one not on Diamox in our party. I waited
in base camp while in a weak state while John Millar, Guy Edwards and Connor
Reynolds brought Damien back to health so we could descend to Gangotri two
days away. Our Liaison Officer, Baskar, came with us and we spent 5 days recovering.
Returning with renewed strength found that the snow had stopped leaving Tapovan
and the peaks in glorious sun. Many expeditions had left, believing even the
west ridge of Shivling was unclimbable this year. Damien and I moved a load
up to advanced base camp at 5100 meters and quickly descended the same day
leaving a stash of gear. We headed back to sleep at BC in hopes of acclimatize
further. The snow pack had thawed enough during the day that we continuously
post holed through the snow resulting in a tendon in my knee seizing. I couldn't
walk without help for the last 300 feet to camp and I spent the next 5 days
recovering in BC. Damien went back to ABC and acclimatized. He spent some
time soloing up the west ridge of Shivling and made it to camp 1.
Days later I radioed him on his situation and made preparations to move the
last of our gear to ABC. Damien had been watching Meru's ice face which was
plastered with unconsolidated snow. The face held onto it’s precarious
snow pack for four days after the storm. He figured I should bring a smaller
pack and test my knee before committing all our gear to ABC. He had a hunch
that Meru would be almost impossible for an alpine style ascent due to the
waist deep vertical snow waiting to blast down and wipe us out. I arrived
in ABC at 6 am feeling acclimatized and that my knee had healed enough for
an attempt on Meru. At this point Damien had lost all hope for Meru due to
a British expeditions report that the lower ice face was completely unconsolidated.
It was now getting on in the season and temperatures were dropping. With only
a couple of hours of sun on Meru each day there was no freeze / thaw cycle
happening high on Meru. Disappointed to the fact that we had suffered so much
to fail because of weather we stayed in ABC that afternoon to make sure we
hadn't made a hasty decision. That evening we still feet we had made the right
choice so we grabbed all our gear in a heavy load and descended to BC.
At this point I was unsure about my weak knee so Damien and I split up for
3 days. He became sick again but recovered quickly enough to try for another
run at Shivling. An Austrian team had spent two weeks shoveling there way
to camp 2 and were now fighting the overhanging serac pitch. An Israeli team
had made it to camp 1 and fixed ropes on the upper ridge below camp 2. From
BC at 4200 meters Damien in a 15 hour push made it to 5700 meters, just below
camp 2 before the rigors of climbing solo and the severe altitude gain in
such a short time convinced him to turn around. He did manage to sleep 2 hours
at camp 1 in an Israeli tent before trying the upper ridge and then turning
around. He feels if he had brought a sleeping bag he might of attempted to
survive the night and try the summit but as is he suffered mild frostbitten
fingers and toes.
I grabbed what I needed for three days and using two approach poles the Israelis
lent me I hiked 10 km up the Gangotri glacier for photo opportunities. I got
to see Shivling and Meru from the back and Bhargarathi III and Kedar Dome
up close. I would of continued to the base of Swachand, another 15 km away,
where our other three friends were climbing it's east face, but my knee was
becoming severely painful again. I figured I was exposed enough being 10 km
away from any help so I packed up and slowly made my way back to BC. Damien
and I decided Meru wasn't going to be climbable this year so we decided to
leave. Jules Cartwright's British climbing team also decided to give up on
Meru, this being his second attempt. His previous trip six years ago saw his
team to just below the final Sharks fin, having reached a high point of any
expedition at the time. We pooled our resources and made our way back to Delhi
for some good food, beer and Indian night clubbing. On the way out my knee
became worse and couldn't bend it for the last couple of kilometers.
We did manage to get some amazing photos and incredible bouldering even though
there was still lots of snow at the end. Amazing climbers from around the
world filled Base Camp that year and made for great company. I managed to
solo a 500 foot spire / ridge on Shivling's north side out of Tapovan. Amazing
day where I climbed in approach shoes without a rope on amazing clean swept
granite. I tried three different corner systems before I found a more comfortable
way to the top. Standing above Tapovan I could see all the expedition tents
far below and the glistening rivers that wandered among them. ABC was far
behind me up the Meru glacier and far in the distance were my three friends
on Swachand.
GETTING BLOOD POISONING, DELHI. OCT 5 2002.
Had a bit of a scare last night. I had a cut on my shoulder from a month ago. We'll it mostly healed but I got a boil right beside it, which I think is a result of the first cut and being somewhat unclean due to three weeks without a proper shower in the mountains. We'll that boil became so infected it created a massize crater on my shoulder which eventually healed somewhat. Then when I returned to Delhi another one burst beside it. It got even worse then the other two and last night there was a spot on my back about the size of my palm that was absolutly swollen, red and infected. Pain from infected blood was making my arm really painfull and I was becoming really tied and worried about gang green. I went to bed with the intentions of seeing the doctor the next day. Before I went to bed a english guy lent me his first aid kit and I applied antibiotic cream. By morning all the redness went away, most of the pain and I got my energy back. Whoa! That was a little too scary. Moral: don't let your partner take the only first aid kit to Nepal without you.
FATHAPUR SIKKI, INDIA. OCT 6 2002
So yesturday I traveled to Agra and saw the great Taj Mahal. Pretty cool, but I don't think I'm much of a tourist. I kept looking for the places I wan't allowed to go. At one point I got yelled at for scaling up the side of a tower from a guard with a pump action shotgun.
We also visited an abondoned fortress in Fathapur Sikki. When the city of Agra became too crowded the Caliph of the time, Akbar the Great, decided to build a new capital. Unfortunetly as this new city grew they couldn't solve the worsening water supply issue and the city became deserted. We walked under the gates of the mosque surrounded by huge walls and turrets of ancient stone with a temple in the center. Hundreds of people were bustling around, some praying, some hawking souvienirs like desperate hungry animals. It became evening and bats started to pour out of cracks in the stone barracks like bees. They looked like thousands of little whirling black clouds filling the sky, racing for swarms of insects brought out by the cooling air.
It was reaching closing time and I heard whistles from guards motioning people
out through the gates. Ambling along as the court emptied I came across a
door I hadn't seen before and pushed it's great oak door aside just enough
to squeeze in. In the faulturing light I could just make out that there was
a large room with several doors around the back. Light was eminating from
somewhere far beyond. I took a step inside with the intentions of letting
whoever that light belonged to know it was time to leave. Immediately I hit
my knee against a something solid and my swear from the pain echoed high above
in the black vaulted ceiling. As my eyes adjusted I realized I was standing
in a tomb and I had run into a marble coffin that was masoned to the floor.
Another glance showed that there were a few more of different sizes. I picked
my way among them to one of the doors in the back, the sound of bats swishing
past me out the door made a sort of errie wind sound as the massiveness of
the chamber intensified it. Past the islamic styled archway I saw a hall leading
away with more intricately carved coffins placed along it's center. Keeping
to the cool stone wall I made my way along and my eye caught a glimse of something
small and black running along the floor, probably a rat? At the end of the
hall I saw the light had illuminated this room to the point I could see Muslim
scrawl painted on the arching collums that held up the ceiling. Previously
I had learned that this was probably versus quoted from the Quran, Allah's
holy scripture. Each pillar framed an arch on three sides of the room, beyond
which more vaulted chambers lay hidden in darkness. In the center of the room
between more coffins were several basalt looking pillars piled over a hole
in the ground. Stepping over them I could see that one was heaved aside to
let one pass down a flight of stairs to where the light was strong. Lowering
myself through the hole I dropped down onto the stairs and came up against
two doors that were slightly ajar. The musky smell was intense and the dust
I was disturbing had billowed up thickening the air. Peering through the door
my eyes were level with the ceiling beyond and I could see hundreds of little
eyes staring back. Bats were perched all along the ceiling and I could see
another corridor ahead and discovered the source of the light. Candles were
burning along the top edge of a low laticed marble fence surrounding a coffin
with silk red fabric laid over it. Petals from a rose had fallen over the
head end and were also littered along the tiled floor. At the far end of the
chamber knelt a black hooded figure facing a candle lit altar, murmuring something
undistinguishable. I sneezed from the dust, breaking the long silence. The
figure turned, but I was already running up the steps and out into the night.